Mapping The Margins Summary

The Women’s and Gender Equity Center In my time at the Women’s and Gender Equity Center (WGEC) with Pam Rayburn, I was surprised to learn about all of the great opportunities that they provide for students to learn about the battle of being a woman, on campus and in the world. Whether it was through a movie screening, an information session, or an on-campus event, the WGEC has shown that feminism is not limited to one idea, but rather is prevalent in every aspect of life. This service learning experience has shown me that feminism is not only important when it comes to the wage gap or the treatment of women, but also when it makes its way into the environment, the private home, and, of course, in politics. By connecting readings of intersectionality

The movie was about a middle class, white family in a suburban area of Pennsylvania, which has a low crime rate. Crenshaw’s article places an emphasis on intersectionality, that is how class, gender, and race play key roles and have dimensions in how issues are felt differently across spectrums. This difference in magnitudes is especially prevalent in domestic violence. Crenshaw shows that domestic violence does not equally affect those who are White, Black, Asian, Latino, immigrants, or who are in different socioeconomic branches. Within politics, the representation of those experiencing domestic violence is skewed due to intersectional issues. For example, the LAPD has does not release domestic violence statistics, because it is “feared that statistics reflecting the extent of domestic violence in minority communities might be selectively interpreted and publicized” (Crenshaw, 283). The reasoning for this is that it would paint communities with a high number of minorities, such as Black and Latino, as especially violent, which would allow people to “justify” negative stereotypes. These generalizations include a popularly conceived thought that black men are violent beings who cannot be controlled. With this information, domestic violence would mostly be seen in the eyes of the public as a minority issue, and not a “real” issue. In comparison to Amy McGee, a white woman, women of color are less likely to call the police. Some reasons for this are that Black communities distrust police, the Asian community does not want to bring shame to the family, and those who are undocumented would be compromising their own lives (Crenshaw, 284). The politicization of domestic violence creates an unequal experience for those in minority